Rebound win for Robins
Hull KR put their poor recent run well and truly behind them as they handed out a 54-10 thumping to the Crusaders at Craven Park.
Last Updated: 16/05/10 6:16pm
Hull KR put their poor recent run well and truly behind them as they handed out a 54-10 thumping to the Crusaders at Craven Park.
The Robins had conceded 134 points in three successive defeats, but Justin Morgan's men bounced back in style by earning a big win themselves against Brian Noble's Welsh outfit.
Despite going into Sunday's game under pressure, Rovers dominated and ran in nine tries during the victory, including a hat-trick from scrum-half Michael Dobson.
Clinton Newton scored twice and Ben Cockayne, Liam Watts, Peter Fox and Kris Welham also crossed for the hosts, with Dobson converting all nine tries to finish with a personal tally of 30 points.
Just Gareth Raynor and Jarrod Sammut went over for the Crusaders, but they were guilty of missing chances to close the gap as the game proved to be far less one-sided than the scoreline suggested.
Go ahead
The home side went ahead with six minutes on the clock, Newton going in for his first try since the opening day of the season on the back of a big effort from the forwards.
A second try followed two minutes later as the Robins belied their recent form with a brilliant move which ended with Cockayne touching down for his fifth try of the season.
The points continued to flow for the home side, and so did the slick rugby, as Watts slipped out a pass to Josh Hodgson, before the hooker did the same to allow Dobson to sprint clear.
The Crusaders did manage to stem the tide, though, and got back into the game with 25 minutes gone when Raynor, making his first appearance in two months, went in after Sammut's offload.
It could have been so much better for them soon after too had Michael Witt not thrown a forward pass to Weller Hauraki under the posts, rather than taking the simple option of going over himself.
Error
Witt's error was soon magnified, with Watts and Dobson combining again on 29 minutes, the latter claiming his second try, before he wrapped up his hat-trick seven minutes before the break, picking off Adam Peek's pass to race the length of the field.
The Crusaders dominated the game for the first 10 minutes of the second half but were often guilty of trying to force one too many passes, and so it proved as Newton snatched in Sammut's ambitious ball to race the length of the field for his second try.
Sammut snared himself a third try in the English game as the hour mark passed, only for Watts to celebrate his new two-year deal by going in for his second of the campaign at the other end.
England wing Fox ran in another try two minutes from time, before Welham added a ninth in the last minute as Rovers regained a place in the Super League play-off places.
